Christmas arrived early for the clients and staff of Everycare on Friday 8th December when the Dorchester based homecare and nursing provider hosted a complimentary Christmas lunch at Cerne Abbas Village Hall. Over sixty clients and their families enjoyed this special occasion.
Lorrie Truelove, Director and Registered Manager said “We started our client social events a number of years ago, and it’s amazing how this has now grown to our hosting a traditional Christmas lunch for such a large number of people, complete with pass the parcel, a raffle and children from Cerne Abbas First School entertaining us beautifully with their Christmas songs and carols.
Many clients have got to know each other well by now from simply attending the other functions we have hosted, and as word spreads, the numbers keep rising! A big thank you to our clients and their families who have embraced supporting this initiative, thereby making it so successful. It is particularly rewarding for me to have the opportunity of getting to know our clients in a social setting and for the first time we were able to facilitate clients who were unable to physically attend, joining us remotely through modern video technology.”
None of this could happen without the dedication of the whole Everycare team, including the ‘Friends of Everycare’ who not only cooked and served the lunch but with military style planning ensured that any clients who needed it were collected and then supported throughout the event.
The ‘Friends of Everycare’ project was launched as Everycare’s contribution to King Charles’ Coronation celebrations initiative ‘The Big Help Out,’ which highlighted volunteering in our communities. Lorrie Truelove, saw this as an ideal opportunity and an innovative way of reducing social isolation of the clients that they supported. This led Lorrie to think about a volunteer team of ‘Friends’ for clients who might wish to have someone visit them on a social basis. She approached Sue Westlake MBE to act as Coordinator of this project and as a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the WRAC, Sue is a terrific addition to Everycare. The team of ‘Friends’ are all former staff members who are well known and aware of Everycare’s expectations and high standards. Although Sue is not a former employee, she is the daughter of a former client whom Everycare looked after for a number of years.
Sue Westlake said “I wanted to give something back to this amazing organisation that had made my Mum’s life so comfortable and happy in her final years and that had enabled me to have some quality time and a life of my own too. It was payback time! The ‘Friends’ are very flexible and are happy to assist the client in any way they can, whether it be practically like writing cards or letters, playing cards or Scrabble, making phone calls on their behalf or just providing companionship and friendship over a cup of tea.”
Lorrie Truelove added “A huge thank you to everyone involved in our Christmas lunch making it a really enjoyable time to spend some quality time together.”
If you would like more information about Everycare (Wessex) Ltd please call 01305 257777
With around 100 members any business in Dorset with less than 30 employees can join Dorchester Chamber for business for £60p/a (no VAT).
